The NCAA Division I Baseball Championship is held each year starting in late May through mid June and features 64 college baseball teams in the United States, culminating in the eight-team Men's College World Series (MCWS) at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.
The tournament is unique in that it features four tiers of competition, alternating between double-elimination brackets and best-of-three series. In fact, throughout the entire 64-team tournament, a team can lose a total of four games and still be crowned champions.
Format During team selection, the top 16 of the 64-team field are given "national seeds". As in other NCAA tournaments, conference champions (usually determined by a tournament) receive automatic bids, and the selection committee fills the remaining spots.
The first round of the tournament, called Regionals, consists of 16 locations that include four teams, seeded 1 through 4, competing in a double-elimination bracket. The 16 national seeds are given the No. 1 seed in their assigned regional. The host sites are determined largely by merit – most national seeds host – but are also contested by bids from schools guaranteeing the NCAA a certain amount of revenue from that regional. Host teams traditionally have a large advantage, although the home team for each game is determined by rule, so the host school sometimes plays as the visiting team.
The regionals are paired together as in a typical 16-team bracket tournament; the regional containing the No. 1 national seed is paired with the regional containing the No. 16 national seed, that containing the No. 2 national seed with that containing the No. 15 national seed, and so forth. This creates the matchups for the second round of competition, the Super Regionals, which are a best-of-three series between the winners of each paired regional.
The Super Regionals are typically hosted by the higher national seed in the regional pairing. If that team does not advance, but the lower national seed advances, the Super Regional will be played at that team's field. If neither of the two advancing teams are national seeds, they will bid for hosting rights. Although one school hosts all three games, the teams split home-team status in the first two games, with the host school batting last in the opening game and first in game 2. If a third game is needed, a coin toss determines home-team status.
The eight Super Regional winners meet in Omaha, Nebraska, in the Men's College World Series. The MCWS mimics the earlier rounds, consisting of two double-elimination brackets of four teams each. Thereafter, the winners of each bracket meet in a best-of-three final. The winner of this final series wins the MCWS and is crowned the national champion. The school with the most national champions is USC with 12, though the Trojans have not won one since 1998, and have not appeared in the World Series at all since 2002. They are followed by LSU, with 8 national champions between 1991 and 2025.
Team titles The following table shows the total national championships won by school, as well a map of all champions.
Team # Years won 12 1948 1958 1961 1963 1968 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1978 1998 8 1991 1993 1996 1997 2000 2009 2023 2025 6 1949 1950 1975 1983 2002 2005 5 1965 1967 1969 1977 1981 4 1976 1980 1986 2012 1979 1984 1995 2004 1982 1985 1999 2001 3 1956 1960 1964 1951 1994 2026 2006 2007 2018 2 1947 1957 1953 1962 2010 2011 1987 1988 2014 2019 1 2016 2017 2008 1990 1952 2021 1954 1966 1959 2022 1992 2003 2024 2013 2015 1955 1989
Appearances
List of NCAA Division I teams with no appearances + List of schoolsSchoolConferenceAbilene Christian UACAlabama A&M SWACArkansas–Pine Bluff SWACBellarmine Atlantic SunCalifornia Baptist Big WestDelaware State NECFairleigh Dickinson NECGardner–Webb Big SouthGeorgetown Big EastIncarnate Word SouthlandIona MetroLindenwood Ohio ValleyLongwood Big SouthMaryland Eastern Shore NECMercyhurst NECMerrimack MetroMississippi Valley State SWACNew Haven NECNorth Alabama UACNorth Florida ASUNOakland HorizonPacific West CoastQueens ASUNSaint Peter's MetroSt. Thomas SummitSIU Edwardsville Ohio ValleySouthern Indiana Ohio ValleyStephen F. Austin SouthlandStonehill NECUT Martin Ohio ValleyTexas A&M–Corpus Christi SouthlandToledo MACUC San Diego Big WestUMass Lowell America EastUtah Tech Mountain WestVMI SouthernWest Georgia UACWest Florida ASUNWestern IllinoisOhio Valley
Past formats
+Overview of Tournament FormatsYearTotal TeamsRegionSuper RegionalCollege World SeriesNo.TeamsFormatTeamsFormatChampionship1947824Single-elimination2Best-of-three194824Double-elimination2Best-of-three194942Best-of-three4Double-elimination1950–19538Each district determined its manner for selection, some held unofficial tournaments8Double-elimination19542482 to 4Varied1955251956241 to 41957232 to 41958261959221 to 419602519612 to 41962271963231964211 to 41965232 to 41966291967251968272 to 51969232 to 41970261971231972282 to 61973323 to 61974282 to 61975324Double-elimination1976–1981344 or 61982–1987361988–1998486Double-eliminationSingle-elimination1999–200364164Best-of-three2004–pres.Best-of-three
1947 The first tournament was an 8 team single elimination tournament. Four teams each were put into two playoff brackets, named the "Eastern playoff" and the "Western playoff." The winner of each bracket moved on to the College World Series, which was, at that time, a 2 team best-of-three-game series.
1948 The second year of the tournament maintained the "Eastern playoff" and "Western playoff" format, however, they were now double elimination. The winner of each bracket moved on to the College World Series to play a best-of-three-game series.
1949 The third year of the tournament consisted of four regions named Region A, Region B, Region C, and Region D. Each region consisted of two teams playing in a best-of-three-game series. The winner of each region moved on to the College World Series, which was now a four-team double-elimination tournament.
1950–1953 From 1950 through 1953, the preliminary rounds were not managed by the NCAA but rather by the district colleges, and thus these games are not recorded in the official history books of the NCAA. The winner of each district managed playoff (although some districts did not have playoffs and chose to select their teams by committee) were sent to the College World Series, which was an eight-team double-elimination tournament. The 1950 event was the first in Omaha, where it has remained.
1954–1974 From 1954 through 1974 the tournament consisted of eight districts, named by number. Each consisted of between two and five teams playing in differently formatted tournaments. Some years included automatic College World Series qualifiers, and that team played no district games; for an example see 1959. The winner of each district moved on to the College World series, which was double-elimination.
1975 The first year of the regional format was 1975. Eight regionals consisted of four teams in a double-elimination tournament. The winner of each regional moved on to the College World Series, also double-elimination.
1976–1981 The tournament essentially remained unchanged from the 1975 version, however, one regional consisted of six teams in a double-elimination tournament, with four teams in each of the other seven regionals. The winner of each regional moved on to the College World Series, also double-elimination.
1982–1987 The tournament expanded again in 1982—to 36 teams—to include two regionals with six teams while the other six regionals only had four teams. The Regionals remained double-elimination with the winners moving onto the College World Series, also double-elimination.
Subsequently, the tournament field expanded to 38 teams in 1985, 40 teams in 1986, and 48 teams in 1987.
1988–1998 From 1988 through 1998, the NCAA tournament featured 48 teams, which contested in eight regionals of six teams each for the right to go to the College World Series.
1999–2017
The four-team regional format and the best-of-three super regional format debuted in 1999, with the expansion of the tournament to 64 teams.
The best-of-three championship series at the College World Series debuted in 2003 after CBS ceased coverage of the "one-off" College World Series championship game. This allowed the NCAA to institute the best-of-three series for the finals, which better mimics the traditional three-game series played during the regular season and makes a pitching staff's depth a key factor. ESPN and ESPN2 now cover the entire CWS. After 61 years at Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, the College World Series moved to the new TD Ameritrade Park in 2011.
2018–present For the first time, the 2018 NCAA Division I baseball tournament seeded the top 16 teams, rather than only the top 8 teams as had been the practice since 1999. This ensures that the regional featuring top ranked team will be paired with the regional hosted by the sixteenth seeded team, where the previous Super Regionals qualifiers were paired generally along geographical lines. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, & ESPN3 covered every regional. Prior to 2025, the Longhorn Network also covered games that Texas hosts for people in Texas for regionals but featured on ESPN3 since Longhorn Network was an ESPN sports network only in Texas. The Longhorn Network shut down on July 1, 2024 when Texas joined the Southeastern Conference.
All Super Regionals are on ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU. However they are mainly on ESPN2 & ESPNU. The CWS is on ESPN & ESPN2.
National seeds In 1999, the NCAA began awarding eight teams with a national seed. These teams automatically host a super regional if they advance past the regional round, unless their facilities are considered inadequate by the NCAA and thus do not bid to host, or their home stadium is unavailable because of scheduling conflicts; in some cases, a team may share a stadium with a minor league professional baseball team, or if their stadium does not meet NCAA requirements, host the event at the professional team's stadium. The former was the case for Cal State Fullerton in 1999, as its ballpark lacked the required seating capacity and media facilities at the time, forcing the Titans to play their super regional at Ohio State. Also in 1999, Rice hosted a super regional at the Astrodome, which was in its final season as home of the Houston Astros. The Owls' rebuilt facility, Reckling Park, hosted its first regional in 2001 and first super regional in 2002. In 2015, Missouri State was unable to host because of scheduling conflicts with the minor-league team whose off-campus ballpark it used. In 2018, the NCAA expanded the national seeds to 16 teams, guaranteeing the lower seed the ability to host the super regional if the higher seed does not advance.
Gray Shade and Italics indicates team made the Men's College World Series. Bold Italics indicates team won the Men's College World Series.